One of the most common areas that needs developing in beginner pianists (and even - to some extent - in some more well established pianists) is the need to use the full extent of their wrist.
Because pianos make their sounds by depressing keys - which are done so by the fingers - it is naturally assumed that the fingers are where a lot of the control is. It is indeed true to say that the fingers do need to have a certain amount of strength behind them as they can be held more responsible for certain dynamic ranges (the extremities of fff, for example) as well as certain articulations (fingers play their part in getting a nice, quick staccato - though not alone!), but using fingers alone does nothing to develop - or even initially achieve - fluidity in playing. This goes for both a desired result musically and for comfortable playing.
How to Strengthen the Wrist Ready to Play Piano
There are a number of different exercises that we can employ to ensure that the wrist is being given a good workout. Namely, there are three different things that can be brought into play to show just how powerful the wrist is and - if you find that you aren’t naturally incorporating the appropriate technique(s) below into your natural playing then try to make a conscious effort to incorporate them into your practice of any piece of music you play.
Preface - Warming Up
Your wrist needs exercising in the same way your fingers do - even professional pianists do wrist exercises to keep them in check! Before you even sit down at the piano, try the following exercise to warm up the wrist:
Allow your hands to hang freely from your wrist, then shake the hands freely from side to side to loosen then.
Now, rotate your hands in a 360 degree circle. Do this one hand at a time if it’s a bit awkward doing them together. Try to ensure that you get the full circle - sometimes people who are new to this create all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes with their movements! - and keep it relatively slow. You need to get it so that it moves freely and in a flowing way, and that will put you in excellent stead for the rest of the exercises moving forward.
1 - The Doorknob
So called because of its likeness to grabbing a doorknob and rattling it quickly from side to side. If this were the case, you’d do so in such a way that your hand wouldn’t immediately get tired. This is exactly the same philosophy when it comes to performing between the highs and lows of your hand: move your wrist rapidly to increase the likelihood of a good depression of the fingers and decrease the need to be so forceful with your fingers.
A simple exercise we can do is to use fingers 5 and 1 in the left hand or fingers 1 and 5 in the right hand and choose the logical interval that this range spans: the perfect fifth!
It doesn’t matter which notes we start on here, but for simplicity’s sake we shall start on C. Starting with the left hand, place finger 5 on C (one octave below middle C) and finger 1 (your thumb) on the G above. The remaining fingers should naturally hover over each respective note between (D - E - F).
Before I explain what you should be doing, try playing an alternating pattern of the two notes at regular intervals: C - G - C - G - C - G etc. - you are just working from bottom to top to bottom to top.
How do you notice that you are playing the notes? Are you playing from your fingers?
To answer this, answer the following questions:
Is your hand remaining completely flat at all times?
Are your fingers doing all of the work?
If you answered yes to both of these, you are playing from the fingers, and this is precisely what we wish to eliminate. If you do this for too long - even at a slow tempo - you will eventually cause fatigue in your hand.
Let’s try and increase that wrist action.
Firstly, press down finger 5 but rotate the wrist somewhat left so that the remaining fingers all lift up a little. Don’t worry if it seems a little exaggerated at first - we’re just getting used to the movement before we fine tune it.
Secondly, press down finger 1 and very gently and very smoothly rotate the hand position so it now mirrors what it just did - i.e. the wrist is rotated somewhat right to compliment the thumb and the remaining fingers are somewhat lifted up.
Now repeat these two steps over and over, but maintain a regular rhythm. Use a metronome if you need to, but don’t be ashamed of keeping it slow.
By using the wrist, you are massively absorbing the ‘shocks’ that naturally occur when you press keys on the keyboard. This means that you will be able to keep going with this technique for a lot longer than if you just use your fingers, not to mention that it will be much more comfortable to do in the first place - if only for a couple of bars!
Repeat this with the right hand.
2 - Go With The Flow
The movements that you are going to be incorporating into your wrist are exactly the same here, but now we need to develop our musical understanding and instinct to best apply the correct movement.
Although it may not be something that comes naturally at first, it is an extremely easy principle to remember: the wrist moves in the direction of the music.
Perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate is with a scale.
Let’s take a simple C major pentascale (C - D - E - F - G - F - E - D - C).
Play this with either hand as you feel comfortable and ask yourself - knowing what you now know - if you are playing with your fingers or your wrist.
If you feel that your hand is flat at all times and each individual finger is taking all the load, maybe it’s time to perform this scale in a slightly different way.
For continuity, let’s demonstrate with the left hand again:
Place finger 5 over C and lay each finger on the next note ascending (2 = D, 3 = E etc.)
Play C using finger 5 and - similarly to above - rotate the wrist ever so slightly to the left to allow it to play the note with greater ease whilst slightly elevating the rest of the fingers.
Now play each note in succession BUT - each time you do so, work slightly more towards the mirror image that we worked to above (finger 1 playing G with the wrist rotated more to the right and the remaining fingers slightly off the keys).
A rather crude way to try and think of how to work through this progression is to consider that when you press the note E with finger 3, your hand should be virtually flat as this is the midway point.
When you reach G at the top, work back down with the same principles.
Make sure that when you practice these, you also do practice to a regular beat such as a metronome. Start as slowly as you need to and don’t hesitate to build up the pace when you feel ready to.
The pentascale is but an easy demonstration for you, but the principle of this will apply to most any piece of music. If you are playing a melody or bassline that has clear ascent or descent then this is a golden opportunity to utilise this technique. If you find that you have some big jumps in pieces of music as well - even over an octave! - then you can partly use wrist action to ensure you hit notes more accurately. Try jumping between notes that are far apart with flat fingers and then try and gracefully glide between the same notes and see how much easier and more accurate it is!
3 - The Bouncing Method
The one other common method is what I term the bouncing method and this is used when playing multiples of the same note (or especially chord) - vamping, in essence.
To do this, you have to imagine that your hand is on a string and is effectively behaving like a yo-yo!
However, in order to get this as graceful as possible, you crucially need to remember how to play notes and chords:
The second that your fingers have touched the notes / chord in question, you’ve done your job. Don’t tense up, don’t be tempted to hold them there. As soon as they are down, lift them off with a nice, easy flow.
Let’s demonstrate with a C major chord:
Play C major in the right hand (middle C - E - G).
Now play the chord a few times to a regular rhythm.
It can be difficult to observe this whilst you play it, so feel free to record your hand and try and take note of what it does.
We want to have a grace in our hands that allow us to see the movement between it being on the notes playing the chord and above them waiting to play the chords, however what many people find is that their hand appears to look like a switch! - that is to say, it’s on, it’s off, it’s on, it’s off - nothing seems to happen between - just all of a sudden it’s playing the keys or off them again!
Take your hand away from the keys if this is the case and gently allow your hand to rise and fall from the wrist as if you were playing with a very small yo-yo (or, indeed, making a tiny marionette do a small, graceful dance!). This is exactly the same technique, so once you feel you have this, try and incorporate it more into your piano playing.
For a video recap, see my YouTube video below. In fact, subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be kept updated with all things piano there too!
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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